TK-02 Nosecone

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Nosecone

Nosecone has that favourite vehicle mode of Japanese Toy designers, a Drill Tank! When did the Japanese get so obsessed with Drill Tanks? When they saw The Mole in Thunderbirds? Or before that? He's got a mainly brown body, with a single white and sadly non truning drill at the front. The cockpit is painted in red and there's some yellow towards the back. The drill tank has two configurations: one where the drill lies close to the floor and another, when the tracks are pulled down & back, which elevates the tank body up somewhat. This is it's usual mode: two 5mm peg holes are exposed here on the sides which allows his two rocket propelled missiles to be pegged onto each side above the tracks. Each track contains a pair of small wheels allowing the toy to move. The drill tank can be pivoted forward on it's tracks so the nose points towards the ground.

Transformation: Remove the missiles. Push the tracks forward and up. Fold the rear of the tank back 180 degrees to form the robot's legs. Fold the nosecone back. Stand on the rear of the tank with the underside facing forward. Peg his gun into the 2mm peg hole on the side of his hand.

Lots of brown again in robot mode with the yellow from the back of the tank ending up on the front of the legs. Yellow is also used for the chest centre and head with the rest of the torso being moulded in white plastic. His arms move and his knees bend together as part of the transformation: that's it for articulation. Sadly there's no way he can use his missiles in this mode.

Nosecone's robot mode is the basis for both his limb mode. Start each of them by folding the lower legs back 180 degrees, folding the arms to the side and re-attaching the missiles.

Leg Mode: Plug a foot into one of the holes at the bottom of the toy.

Arm Mode: Fold the head forward to form the Scramble City connector. Fold the drill back into place. Plug a hand into the hole on the bottom of the toy.

Nosecone usually serves as Computron 's left leg. Nosecone is capable of becoming a longer limb if you leave the robot legs folded out: there are 5mm peg holes at either end of the leg. I prefer the more compact version.

TFWiki's Nosecone entry jokes that "According to Blaster, Nosecone won the Sportsmechanoid of the Millennium thanks to his Mecha-soccer skills." This is a joke at the expense of a Brave Police Toy, Drillboy, who looks very simialr to Nosecone and comes with a football. Drillboy is the fourth construction toy in the Brave Police line and allows Build Tiger, formed from McCrane, Power Joe & Dumpson, to power up to form Super Build Tiger. I want a Super Build Tiger, my KO fell to bits!

My Mum bought me a Nosecone back from a Jumble sale many years ago and I loved it. For several years it was my only Technobot - I later owned Strafe but sold both when I purged the original collection in late 1995. Now I have one again and, as much as I love the Seacons, think he might be my favourite Special Team/Scramble City limb toy. There's some fun to be had here.

Nosecone was sold in the UK & USA in 1987 where he was Technobot TK-02, and was also available in the Computron giftset. He was Japanese Transformer C-87 and also part of the C-91 Computicon giftset. Both Japanese toys were sold into 1988.